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A drug's schedule sets the groundwork for the federal regulation of a controlled substance. Schedule 1 and 2 drugs face the strictest regulations. Schedule 1 drugs are effectively illegal for anything outside of research, and schedule 2 drugs can be used for some medical purposes under the DEA's watch. The DEA even sets strict limits on the production of schedule 1 and 2 drugs, although the limits vary from drug to drug. Only one place in the US — a University of Mississippi farm — is allowed to grow marijuana (up to 650 kilograms in 2014) under federal regulations, and the pot is limited to research purposes. In comparison, several private companies produce oxycodone, a schedule 2 substance, and use the drug for prescription painkillers. A drug's schedule can interfere with state laws. Marijuana's schedule 1 status is one reason banks are reluctant to open accounts for pot shops and growers in Colorado and Washington, even though the businesses are legal under state law. A DRUG'S SCHEDULE CAN INTERFERE WITH STATE LAWS Federal tax law also prohibits businesses from deducting the production of schedule 1 and 2 drugs as a business expense, which can cause state-legal marijuana businesses' effective income tax rates to soar as high as 70 percent. The DEA sometimes uses marijuana's classification to pressure physicians, hospitals, and pharmacies into not working with medical marijuana operations that are compliant with state law. If these medical providers don't comply, the DEA threatens to take back licensing that lets doctors prescribe drugs, such as prescription painkillers with oxycodone, that contain scheduled substances. A drug's schedule isn't the only justification and mechanism for controlling a drug. The federal government also enforces different criminal trafficking limits on drugs, based on which drugs are perceived as the most dangerous when the criminal law is established. What does it take to reschedule a drug? US Attorney General Eric Holder testifies in Congress. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images News) Congress could pass a law that changes or restricts a drug's schedule. But Congress mostly leaves scheduling to federal agencies like the DEA. One exception: Congress previously passedthe Hillory J. Farias and Samantha Reid Date-Rape Prevention Act of 2000 and added gamma hydroxybutyric acid, a date rape drug, to the scheduling system. The White House can also initiate a review process that would look at the available evidence and potentially change a drug's schedule. The review includes several steps: #The DEA, US Department of Health and Human Services, or a public petition initiate a review. #The DEA requests HHS to review the medical and scientific evidence regarding a drug's schedule. #HHS, through the FDA, evaluates the drug and its schedule through an analysis based on eight factors. Among the factors: a drug's potential for abuse, the scientific evidence for a drug's pharmacological effects, and the scientific evidence for a drug's medical use. #HHS recommends a schedule based on the scientific evidence. #The DEA conducts its own review, with the HHS's determination in mind, and sets the final schedule. Although very rigorous, this process has been successfully carried out in the past. For example, the DEA on August 21 announced it rescheduled hydrocodone combination products, or opioid-based prescription painkillers, from schedule 3 to schedule 2. "Almost 7 million Americans abuse controlled-substance prescription medications, including opioid painkillers, resulting in more deaths from prescription drug overdoses than auto accidents," DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart said in a statement. "Today's action recognizes that these products are some of the most addictive and potentially dangerous prescription medications available." Can a drug be unscheduled? It's possible, but it's much more difficult than simply rescheduling a drug. The big hurdle is international treaties. The US is party to international agreements that effectively require some drugs, including marijuana, to remain within the scheduling system. Proving that a drug has no potential for abuse is also very difficult, if not impossible. An American Scientist analysis, for instance, found even relatively safe marijuana has some potential for dependence; it's less addictive than heroin, meth, cocaine, nicotine, and alcohol, but more addictive than hallucinogens such as LSD, which doesn't cause much, if any, dependence. The two drugs not on the scheduling system — alcohol and tobacco — required a specific exemption in the Controlled Substances Act. Mark Kleiman, a drug policy expert at UCLA,argues both would be marked schedule 1 if they were evaluated today, since they're highly abused, addictive, detrimental to one's health and society, and even deadly. Why is marijuana still schedule 1? A woman holds up a bud of marijuana. (Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images) When marijuana's classification comes under review, its schedule 1 status is consistently maintained due to insufficient scientific evidence of its medical value. Specifically, the scientific evidence available for marijuana doesn't pass the threshold required by federal agencies to acknowledge a drug's potential as medicine. HHS's 2006 review of marijuana's schedule found several problems: no studies proved the drug's medical efficacy in controlled, large-scale clinical environments, no studies established adequate safety protocols for marijuana, and marijuana's full chemical structure has never been characterized and analyzed. But one reason there isn't enough scientific evidence to change marijuana's schedule 1 status might be, in fact, the drug's schedule 1 status. The DEA restricts how much marijuana can go to research. To obtain legal marijuana supplies for studies, researchers must get their studies approved by HHS, the FDA, and DEA. (This process didn't even exist until the late 1990s. Before then, it was nearly impossible to obtain marijuana for medical research.) CHANGING MARIJUANA'S SCHEDULE IS A BIT OF A CATCH-22 Changing marijuana's schedule, in other words, is a bit of a Catch-22. There needs to be a certain level of scientific research proving marijuana has medical value, but the federal government's restrictions make it difficult to conduct that research. The insufficient evidence even includes a federally commissioned study. In the 1990s, the federal government tasked the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) to study pot's medical use. IOM'sin-depth report, released in 1999, concluded marijuana is "moderately well suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting." The report also found that the drug is not particularly addictive and not a gateway drug. The only downside uncovered by researchers was that marijuana is usually smoked — researchers feared that could cause health problems in the long-term, but that issue can now be overcome through vaporization pens and edibles. More studies came out in support of medical marijuana after IOM's review, but the IOM study gets a lot of attention since it was commissioned by the federal government. HHS's 2006 review argued the IOM study merely supported further research into marijuana's medical potential, since the study's findings weren't based on large-scale clinical trials. The review cites the IOM study: "If there is any future for marijuana as a medicine, it lies in its isolated components, the cannabinoids and their synthetic derivatives. Isolated cannabinoids will provide more reliable effects than crude plant mixtures. Therefore, the purpose of clinical trials of smoked marijuana would not be to develop marijuana as a licensed drug but rather to serve as a first step toward the development of nonsmoked rapid-onset cannabinoid delivery systems." Some of the researchers involved in the IOM study take issue with the federal government's interpretation. John Benson, one of the authors of the IOM report, previously told the New York Times that the federal government's 2006 review was wrong. The federal government "loves to ignore our report," Benson said. "They would rather it never happened." THE GOVERNMENT "LOVES TO IGNORE OUR REPORT. THEY WOULD RATHER IT NEVER HAPPENED." HHS is currently reviewing marijuana's schedule once again, although it's not clear when the review will be completed. It's possible the federal government might acknowledge marijuana has some medical value and move it down to a schedule 2 classification.''' '''It's also possible the federal government won't change the schedule at all. While the reclassification would be a symbolic win for legalization advocates, Kleiman of UCLAsays it wouldn't have much practical effect. Schedule 2 substances typically require a prescription to be distributed, and neither recreational or medical marijuana dispensaries work through prescriptions. Kevin Sabet, co-founder of the anti-legalization Smart Approaches to Marijuana and a supporter of marijuana's schedule 1 status, argues federal agencies can and should allow more research into marijuana and its various cannabinoids, such as CBD and THC, without reducing marijuana's schedule. "We have advocated that the FDA start a compassionate research program now for components or different parts of marijuana, including the whole plant," Sabet says. Still, moving marijuana down to a schedule 3 substance could help in a few significant ways. It could, for example, allow marijuana businesses to deduct the cost of growing pot from their taxes. It would also loosen restrictions on producing and selling the plant for medical and research purposes. But, at least for now, such a drastic down-scheduling is not very likely